Tag / seapark

I love myself a good afternoon snack, and when it comes to that, sometimes the options can be quite limited. There’s always the rojak, hipster cafe, and mamak, but if you want good old fashion Chinese snacks, well, they aren’t just as common. So it was quite refreshing to see that a such a place sprung up at Seapark recently by the name of Restoran Yuen Ting.

Restoran Yuen Ting, PJ Seapark

Yuen Ting is a bit of a throw back when it comes to a new restaurant, they offer old fashion deep fried Chinese pastry such as yutiao, ham chim peng, and a couple different soya bean products like soya bean drink and tofufar.

a selection of deep fried goodness & soya bean products

While the selection isn’t particularly extensive, the quality of product and value offered was more than decent. I liked that the soya bean drink has a bit of a gingery tint in the syrup supplied, which gives it a bit of extra complexity.

The taufoofar here is has a really smooth texture, a hallmark of any good taufoofar. Like the soya bean drinks, you can choose to have it with dark or normal sugar syrup, I almost always go for the dark version and did not make it an exception this time.

ham chim peng, soya drink, tofufar

Overall, I’d not hesitant to return for a good & comfortable afternoon snack. While there’s no air conditioning, fancy decoration, or even IKEA sofa, this place hold its own among the newer establishments in PJ, and it is one that I believe will stand up to the test of time better than others.

Not too many days ago I found myself at Seapark looking to go for some chicken rice at Hoe Fong, and sure enough it wasn’t open, so we headed for 2nd option – Tong Fong kopitiam at around the corner just behind KFC.

“James Bond” char kuih teow at Restaurant Tong Fong, Seapark

The kopitiam serves pretty good curry mee and beef noodle, but the bright yellow banner that says “James Bond Fried Kuey Teow” caught my attention. Another peek revealed that this self-proclaimed James Bond is at about Sean Connery’s age, so I ordered a plate for myself using my trusted Penang Hokkien, which he understood – litmus test passed!

The ensuing plate of char kuih teow turned out to be more than decent. Good size prawn, juicy cockles, and kuih teow fried with some decent fire, it was pretty good. I only wished there’s a duck egg option and that maybe I should have ordered it a bit more spicy. But it did satisfy my cravings and more than made my stomach happy.

For all these years staying within a kilometer or two within Seapark, I never knew the existence of this row of hawker stalls in the morning right beside the wet market until about half a year ago when introduced by my ex-colleague, Kelvin.

Seapark Morning Market curry mee

The reason that made me want to visit this hawker row was the picture of curry wantan mee shared by Kelvin that looks rather delicious. So a particular fair weathered morning not too long ago, I did just that.

dry “curry mee” with a side of tofu pok

The stall operates from around 4 am and usually sold out before 9. If you want to have super early breakfast, this is definitely the place to go.

The dry version is what most people go for, you have a choice of kuih teow, yellow noodle, or meehun as stomach filler, with the other ingredients being minced meat, sliced fish cake, fried fuchuk, and a side of curry broth with tofu pok & fish ball. Of course, there’s the all important fragrant chili paste as well.

this is available from around 4 am in the morning

So how does it taste?

Well, I’ve never had this exact same combination before, but I think it works pretty well. There’s sweetness from dark soya sauce, the spiciness and fragrance from sambal paste, and savoriness from meat and fish ball/fish cake.

For RM 5, this makes a pretty good breakfast. Now if they also offer coffee, that’ll be great.

Hoe Fong is located at Seapark opposite the morning market and offers a version of chicken rice that is unlike the usual. Instead of steamed and roast chicken, they have the chicken deep fried in boiling hot cooking oil and then serve with a few slices of cucumber.

A plate of chicken rice is RM 6.50 and comes with rice and soup as well as chili paste and minced ginger as condiments. A popular thing to do is adding dark soya sauce on the aromatic rice.

deep fried chicken is delicious, and don’t forget to order the Penang loh bak

Hoe Fong also happen to serve Penang loh bak that turned out to be one of the better versions I tried in Klang Valley. If you’re a fan of loh bak, you should really give this a try.

One of the toughest Penang hawker dishes to hunt down in Klang Valley has got to be char kuih kak. Outside of various pasar malam, there’s only one other stalls at Jalan Sayur that I am aware of, until I went to the hawker row right beside the Seapark wet market a few days ago.

char kuih kak at Seapark, next to the morning market

For those who has never been to Seapark in the wee hours, there’s actually a row of hawker stalls on the same road where My Burger Lab is located. The stalls usually open by around 6am so if you’re looking for earlier breakfasts, this is definitely a place to check out.

char kuih kak as breakfast, glorious

The char kuih kak operator does not have any table nor even plates, the only option is “tapao”.

I ordered a pack of char kuih kak (RM 4) with eggs and took it to the office for breakfast. It wasn’t the best version I’ve tried, but definitely managed to satisfy the cravings for a bit.

Went to the movies with my Transitions lenses glasses, great clarity under low light condition, basically no difference compared to a clear glass. The cool thing is if you walk out from the cinema and it happens to be afternoon, you won’t get hit by the glare like Thor’s Hammer.